When visiting a new city alone your only friend is a map. Though a map is not great at conversation. I learnt this the embarrassing way. There are plenty of sights to see in Copenhagen in winter, which could be comfortably seen in 3 or 4 days.
But I learnt that when you have no one to bounce ideas off, or tell you when breaks are needed, you will just seem to walk all day, see everything at double speed, then be absolutely rooted by 6pm.
I ended up in Copenhagen because I had just began my semester abroad in Leeds and planned to see as much of Europe as possible in the process. After getting settled I distinctly remember saying to my housemate who had come over from Australia within the first few days: “So, where do you want to go this weekend?”
Unfortunately, he wasn’t keen to go anywhere. So I sat down and did a search online for flights to find the best deal, sorted by price, and Copenhagen came out at the top of the list.
This is a story of a lone Aussie who, after getting settled in England 2 weeks prior, caught the next flight out to Denmark for a freezing weekend of frozen boats and dodging bicycles.
Day 1
The day began alarmingly soon after the previous day had ended: at no earlier than 2:30am in fact. 9 hours, one taxi, one plane and a train later and I had arrived at my hostel. Since I arrived in the morning, the desk told me that my room would be ready in about 3 hours. So I dropped my bag and set off excitedly to explore my first European city outside of England.
The desk gave me a map and very little direction so I thought first port of call should be the Copenhagen visitors centre, which was thankfully on the map. They gave me a little more direction but I still had no real plan. I could see on the map a City Hall Square and assumed this would be a shopping district or something and it was close by so I headed for it but couldn’t find anything that matched the description in my head.
I kept walking and found Str?get, which is one of Europe’s longest shopping streets with a length of approximately 1.1km. Along here I stopped in at the Guinness World Records Museum…now that was 103 kronor I’ll never see again. There were some cool facts I’m sure, but all are now well forgotten. I wouldn’t bother with this one.
My little walk took me to Nyhavn; this cute little street straddling a river, and because it is the middle of winter the boats were all covered in snow and the river was kinda frozen. This was a real highlight.
I soon found Amalienborg Palace where our princess Mary Elizabeth Donaldson lives with a few of her in laws. It was about this time I realised there was a walking tour layout on the map. A walking tour? I must do this!
Fortunately I hadn’t missed anything too important. My new found walking tour took me to this really beautiful Marble Church (Frederik’s Church). I was super impressed with its style because, well, it was the first church I’d seen in Europe. </cynicism>
Next stop was the Little Mermaid which was really quite underwhelming; if it wasn’t such a world famous landmark (is it?) I would not have thought any different of it than any of the other three million statues in Copenhagen.
I would call it the Kim Kardashian of the world’s famous attractions: it’s famous for being famous. What I actually found more captivating was this small church on the way out to the Little Mermaid. St Alban’s church, out by the water, drenched in snow, obscured by trees. Escaping the tourists.
By about this stage it was about 4:30 and time to start making my way to the hostel for check in. After doing so I realised that getting up at 2:30 in the morning followed 5 non-stop hours of walking will really ruin any chance you thought possible at any kind of nightlife. I stumbled through ordering Subway knowing zero Danish and called it a night.
Day 2
You know you’re an Aussie when you’re the only person in the breakfast room of a hostel without shoes. I guess we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Today felt like a good day to finish what I started, and I also found a second walking tour of a different part of the city; I combined the two into one super tour. I started back at City Hall Square, which I discovered is just a big open square… right in front of City Hall. Probably could have done better there I think. Blame it on the 2:30am start.
I walked past the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, an art museum that I didn’t go in. I then just happened to be walking past the National Museum which seemed interesting enough for an express tour. It was free and surprisingly interesting and I’m not usually much of a museum person. It’s definitely worth a walk through. It had a lot of exhibits and info on Danish history, i.e. lots of Viking stuff, very cool. Onwards I walked towards the Christianborg Palace where parliament sits.
After this I kinda lost my direction again and ended up back in Str?get, which wouldn’t be bad except that I needed to be back at City Hall at midday for a tour of the ‘radhuset’ – the 83m high tower which gives a great view of the city, once you walk up the 300 odd steps that is.
This was a bit of a job and involved a light jog, but I made it. I’ve been up a lot of towers in a lot of cities, most taller than this one. But this has to be one of the more unique views I’ve actually experienced. All the buildings are low-rise and covered in a perfect layer of snow.
I was high enough to get a great view of the city, but low enough to see the detail.
Beautiful.
Next on my to-do list was the Carlsberg visitors centre which was quite interesting, especially being a lover of beer. And of course the tour included a few beers at the end too, which always helps.
I got back on the bus to take me back in town and at one of the stops I saw this park with people skating out the front, it was really quite picturesque, and something I would never see back home, not even at our snow fields. One of the advantages of traveling alone and having nowhere to be meant that getting off the bus on a whim was a no-brainer.
I later learnt that it is called Frederiksberg Garden. Inside the park there were people skating on an ungroomed pond, ducks enjoying the rare patches of unfrozen water, and there were a surprisingly amount people out enjoying the day. Despite the cold it was in fact a great day to be outdoors, so I guess the thing to do on great days is go to a park, even if it is in the middle of winter and the temperature is below freezing.
Day 3
Day 3 was kind of random. I caught a train to Sweden. Something I did not expect to do on arrival in Copenhagen. My ticket took me to three places Malm?, Lund and Helsingb?rg. My walking tour of Malm? took me to the City Hall – built in 1546, Malm? Castle, and the Museum. Slottstradgarden, which was a big park with a frozen river and lots of ducks and birds: the stuff postcards are made of. I also saw the Turning Torso from a distance, Sweden’s highest building at 190 metres which has a 90 degree twist from bottom to top.
Lund was interesting. The main attraction is the 12th Century Cathedral there which was pretty amazing. Nearby though, there were thousands of young people lined up to get tickets to a festival of some kind. Seriously the line went for at least a kilometre. It seemed to be a very university driven town as most of the “attractions” related to the school. I walked through the Botanical gardens and a bunch of really cute streets, which just about wrapped up Lund.
Next stop was Helsingb?rg. I’ll be honest, I didn’t find a lot to do or see here, but they did have some sort of fortress up on the hill which was pretty cool. I spent my last 15 Swedish kronor on some gelato and got back on the train for sleepy times, since I clearly had not learnt my lesson from my walking tours the previous two days.
Copenhagen is an absolutely gorgeous city and if (when) I go back I will make sure I visit in winter again to experience the beauty of the snow covered streets and buildings.
